Mutual Fund News

CI Harbour fund manager's recent buying spree

The top holdings of stock mutual funds that took the big prize in their asset class at last month's annual Canadian Investment Awards.

This week, we start with CI Harbour Fund run by CI Financial Corp.'s Gerry Coleman. In addition to taking the top award in the Canadian equity group, he was also named Morningstar's fund manager of the year.

It's worth perusing the largest holdings to get more insight into a fund, or gain comfort that a pro is also betting on a stock you like.

MORE ABOUT THE FUND

The $4.3-billion Canadian stock fund can invest up to nearly half of its assets in foreign stocks. It held 42 per cent in securities outside of Canada at the end of December.

Mr. Coleman is a value-oriented stock picker, but also considers economic trends like the demand for resources driven by growth in emerging markets. That has led him to invest in some energy and mining stocks.

During last year's bear market, the fund lost 24.5 per cent versus a 33-per-cent plunge for the S&P/TSX total return index. Over 10 years, the fund has posted an average annual return of 7.7 per cent compared with 5.3 per cent for the index.

Before last year, the only calendar year decline occurred in 2002, when CI Harbour dipped 0.09 per cent.

WHAT DID WE FIND OUT?

The top nine holdings in CI Harbour include such resource names as BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest miner; Goldcorp Inc., EnCana Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc.

While these commodity stocks took a beating last year, Suncor - which releases fourth-quarter results today - has been the top performer of the bunch this year. It gained nearly 16 per cent as of Jan. 16.

Canadian National Railway Co. and Goldcorp, which were among his top stocks, held up better than most during the market downturn. They, respectively, shed only 6 and 7 per cent over the past year.

In his investment commentary, Mr. Coleman said he went on a buyingspree when the markets collapsed last fall - particularly in October.

"The stock market is, at present, showing early signs that a bottoming process may have already begun," Mr. Coleman suggested. "All in all, we look for decreased stock market volatility and calmer markets in the coming months."